Talk delivered at the Lean Agile Scotland 2016 conference (#lascot16). In this session, we explore how our brain builds up beliefs, truisms, rules of thumb or heuristics that we apply unconsciously in everyday situations. This can lead to habituation and a loss of engagement. The session introduces the idea of introducing "jolts" to the system to avoid routine and habituation from happening.

1. The
image
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The
José Casal
@jose_casal
jose.casal@actineo.email
THINKING?
ARE WE REALLY
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2. DO YOU THINK
WE ACT RATIONALLY
MOST OF THE TIME?

3. DO YOU THINK
PEOPLE REACT
INSTINCTIVELY?

4. In the beginning…

6. I have a hammer

7. TECHNOLOGY
CHANGES.
PEOPLE
DON’T
Jon Terry at #lascot16

8. People aren't
rational. We're not
thinking
machines, we're -
we're feeling
machines that
happen to think.
― Peter Watts, Blindsight

9. Mental effort,
I would argue,
is relatively rare.
Most of the time
we coast.
― Daniel Kahneman

10. SYSTEM 1
Fast
Always alert
Unconscious
Effortless
Rules of thumb
Everyday decisions
Error Prone

11. SYSTEM 2
Slow
Conscious
Effortful
Abstract thinking
Complex decisions
Reliable

12. OVER TIME, WE
DEVELOP NEW
TRUISMS.
WE DO NOT
QUESTION THEM
AND USE THEM
WITHOUT REALLY
THINKING

13. SOME EXAMPLES
OF THESE RULES
OF THUMBS

14. “Making sure resources are busy
increases efficiency and productivity”

15. “On-time, on-budget and on-scope are the
most important things to manage”

16. “Minimising cost is good”

17. “Open plan is the optimal office
layout for creative work”

18. “Teams must run a 15-minute
stand-up on a daily basis”

19. “Cross-functional teams are the
best way to deliver products”

20. “Events must be run
on a regular cadence”

21. habituationhəbɪtʃʊˈeɪʃ(ə)n,həbɪtjʊ-/
noun
the diminishing of an innate response to a frequently repeated stimulus.

22. SYSTEM
JOLTS

23. “I took 3 tickets from our board.
No one noticed the missing
tickets during the stand-up!”

24. “During the stand-up we took on
someone else’s persona. It was eye-opening”

25. “Swap
jobs for
a day”

26. “Hackathons can
break the
routine”

27. KEEP
THINGS
WEIRD
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